We won two a title in 2003-04 without a legitimate center. As good as Big Ben was he is only about 6'9".

With the zone now legally permitted there are a number of ways to compensate for not having weight down low.

The fact is that quickness, and foot and hand movement are a lot more important than weight when it comes to defense. What is also important is lower body strength and balance and more weight does not necessarily equate to having those characteristics.

I think our defense will be just fine. You can't play much of a post up game against a good zone defense or a good zone press, which I imagine we will see lots of both this year.

Defense begins with the guards. AA and Hot Rod are a major upgrade to our perimeter defense and will get enough minutes to make a difference in that area.

Maybe someone, not I, can volunteer to keep us abreast of points in the paint against us this year and do some comparisons. I am sure it will be favorable with some recent prior year numbers.

I think you do need size for defensive purposes. The East does have some frontcourt players that can do a lot of damage in the playoffs if you can't match up. Dwight Howard was inexperieced last year, its going to be harder to stop him. NJ is getting Krystic back, Boston has KG now. Shaq is still dangerous if you can't match up with him.

We are not the Suns and never will be with our core. Besides, its kind of amusing how so many think they are the new model to follow when they have never made it out of the 2nd round with this.

Looks like the Pistons are banking a lot on Sheed to stop these guys. Have to hope he can stay out of foul trouble. How tall is Amir, do we know yet?

He is taller than Big Ben and I believe also has a noticeably longer reach, though he is not as heavy nor as strong as Big Ben was when he was with us.

Overall defensive skill level of course is not close if you compare AJ now, with Big Ben in his prime.

However, I don't remember how good a defender Big Ben was when we obtained him, though I am sure his defense then was definitely better than his offense.

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Its hard to say with AJ. We will have to see how he does next season. I am not trying to compare anyone to Wallace. That contract for what he gave the Bulls last season would have killed us. They can afford it for now but they will have to lose some players over it.

Time to move on but what are we going to do to matchup with the few atheletic bigs out there? We will see.

Forget this nonsense with Kirilenko...he who is of erratic talent and lacks the core stability (short of war) of a home base to upright the ship. This is a historic pattern of typical Eastern European culture in the grand Tolstoy scope.

Tay, (I am testing the temperature of the water here) might have learned something this summer. His future course (as we have seen his progress toward a neutral commitment) is diminishing returns. What Kirilenko lacks, Tay has.

To turn Tay on his head (a conversion, so-to-speak), would be to have him comprehend Tolstoy's grand short novella: The Death of Ivan Ilych.

Nazr is/was worthless and doesn't require this team to waste more money or roster space bringing in a retread if they already conceded that they didn't need one of the best defensive big men in the game. There's no need to replace a big man because you aren't actually losing a big man by getting rid of Half-Price. That's like trying to reason with who you get to replace Tremaine Fowlkes or Super Dupe.

Nazr is/was worthless and doesn't require this team to waste more money or roster space bringing in a retread if they already conceded that they didn't need one of the best defensive big men in the game. There's no need to replace a big man because you aren't actually losing a big man by getting rid of Half-Price. That's like trying to reason with who you get to replace Tremaine Fowlkes or Super Dupe.

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Unless Joe trades him, I think that Nazr will get more minutes than you expect. I'm worried that Flip's strategy of playing Sheed at center and starting McDyess will lead to injuries.

Unless Maxiell has learned to shoot free throws, I can't see Flip relying on him to fill in for the old guys... which leaves Nazr. He's not Ben Wallace, but he does play Center better than Tremaine Fowlkes or Ronald Dupree.